Some days I really need a boost of confidence. But where is that found? I can fill in the blank above with:
my abilities
my wisdom
my personality
my experience
my husband
my church
my friends
my parenting strategies

I don’t know about you, but confidence in these don’t always inspire courage and quiet my anxieties.

We start homeschool for real next month and I range from excited to really sure I’m going to blow it.

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.” Jeremiah 17:7

We’re having another child. Will my marriage take the added stress? Can I take the added stress??

“Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation . . . Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, who made heaven and earth . . . ” Psalm 146:3-6a

I’m pretty sure I’m going to turn out to be a disappointing friend and a sham of a community group leader.

“Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives live.” 2 Corinthians 3:5-6

In my reading through the Bible this year (wait–don’t be impressed–I’m still in Deuteronomy. Not giving up . . . ), I read about how when the Israelites came face-to-face with the land of Canaan that God was giving them, and the intimidating people that lived there, they were terrified. They said, “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them” (Numbers 13:33). Do you feel like an annoying little grasshopper in the face of some things in your life? I do!

But Caleb urged them, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” (13:30). God said of Caleb, “my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedley” (Numbers 14:24). Caleb could see himself and the situation differently because his confidence was in His God. 

If you remember the story, the results of not putting confidence in God were disastrous for Israel. But God still loved them, provided for them, and trained them through it, giving them 40 years in the desert to begin to place their confidence securely in Him. And eventually, He did what He has set out to do with them–but this time with an almost entirely different group of people.

Friends, the Spirit of God always comes through. Let’s place our confidence in Him and nothing else. Let’s see him as bigger than anything we face.

I’m listening to this song, “It is Well”, by Bethel music today (words here). Sing it out with raised hands if you need to today. Declare it to the darkness that tries to grip your heart and make you feel like it’s all up to you! My Sarah calls it the other “Let it go” song. 🙂

“So let it go my soul and trust in Him
The waves and wind still know His name”